


What Happens In Iowa Corn Fields...

by kenzz_95



Series: Ghost Hunting Verse [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: But maybe not what you expect, Idiots in Love, M/M, Marriage Proposal, There's something in the corn..., slight miscommunications
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26805808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenzz_95/pseuds/kenzz_95
Summary: Jim finally got his way and is dragging Leonard all around Iowa, and somehow managed to get him to agree to dust off his old ghost hunting skills and investigate a local haunted corn field. Leonard figures he'll propose soon, maybe even that night if all goes according to plan, but really he should just stop expecting everything to go to "plan" at that point.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Series: Ghost Hunting Verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948540
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40
Collections: Trektober 2020





	What Happens In Iowa Corn Fields...

**Author's Note:**

> Trektober day 4: Monster hunting
> 
> Like the previous part in this series, this works better if you read the works that come before it, but could theoretically stand on its own.

Leonard and Jim were running for their lives, and, well, wasn’t that just typical? They were supposed to be on leave, but instead they were running full speed, single file through a cornfield in Iowa. Well, technically they were still on leave, but this was  _ not _ how Leonard had imagined this night going.

The two of them were back on earth for a while, because Leonard was confident that if he had to stay on Yorktown while the Enterprise was being repaired then he was absolutely going to just throw up every day or something. His aviophobia may have been largely conquered, but God he hated that place. So he had taken a position at Starfleet Medical back in San Francisco and Jim had snagged a teaching position at the Academy for the upcoming term and they were going to spend some nice, relaxing time planetside during the 6-12 months it took for the Enterprise to be repaired. At least it was  _ supposed _ to be relaxing. Running for his life really hadn’t been part of the deal, but of course nothing with Jim Kirk was ever that simple.

Shortly after arriving on earth, Leonard had taken Jim back to Georgia with him to spend a week with his family. His mother, grandparents, and Joanna had all met Jim before, but that was the first time they had ever met Jim as Leonard’s boyfriend. They had been together for three years at that point, it was more than time. Plus, well, Leonard was maybe a little bit of a traditionalist at heart and wanted to have the whole “meet the family” thing done before he proposed, which he was going to do soon. Jim, though, had promptly declared turnabout to be fair game and had dragged Leonard’s ass to Iowa despite the fact that Jim didn’t even have a whole lot there anymore. But his boyfriend had taken him on a hilarious tour of Washington County, Iowa, which had included all of the Jim Kirk hallmarks. Leonard had been treated to each of the locations where a young, reckless, and traumatized Jim had had unfortunate run ins with the law, various bars of note, the field he had first gotten drunk in, the little manmade pond where he had always swam as a child, and the farm he had snuck onto to try cow tipping when he was 15, to apparently not that much success.

Jim’s final stop had been what he deemed to be “the most haunted cornfield in Iowa”, although Leonard couldn’t begin to guess where specifically in his ass he had pulled that from. Jim had wanted to go check it out, see if Leonard could pick up on anything, and Jim had been waxing so sentimental about how much fun they had at the Academy doing this kind of shit and that doing that had been when he fell in love with Leonard that Leonard had no choice but to agree to it. They hadn’t done that sorta thing since the night Jim had finally gotten him to admit that maybe, in some limited circumstances, ghosts may exist, and that had been six years ago.

Jim was bound and determined to catch the “creature” that called that corn field its home, but Leonard knew he wasn’t going to be the best judge of ghost activity that night. The sky was clear, and night had brought with it a slight reprieve from the Midwestern summer heat and Jim just kept looking at him and smiling, the entire world in those bright blue eyes, and Leonard realized that tonight may be the night. He had been carrying a ring around in his pocket ever since they finished up with his family in Georgia, waiting for the perfect opportunity and certain that he would know it when it hit him. It was odd how even tailing along behind Jim between rows of corn, tassels hitting him in the face and mosquitoes buzzing around his ankles could be something peaceful. Romantic, even. Maybe, once Jim had seen what he needed to see, Leonard would finally show him the ring. 

And for some goddamn reason, Leonard was nervous as hell about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t know if Jim wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. He had known that for quite some time, and it had been discussed both seriously and in passing little comments about where  _ they _ would live after they retired and all that. And it wasn’t even that he didn’t think Jim would want the official commitment. They were taking the time while the Enterprise was down -  _ again _ \- to fill out the required paperwork to have their partnership officially recognized by Starfleet, which was something that was required marriage or no, for certain “perks”, mostly ones that Leonard hoped desperately that he would never actually have to use. But Jim had always sworn up and down when they were at the Academy that he was  _ never _ getting married, which is what had Leonard nervous. Granted, Jim hadn’t said a goddamn thing about that since they had gotten together, maybe even earlier, and Jim’s problem at the Academy had always been about not being able to imagine committing to one person for the rest of his life and Leonard knew that was no longer an issue, but still. Leonard was nervous, his stomach twisting in knots, and he very much so did not trust the validity of his gut or whatever the hell it was that sometimes warned him when something supernatural was afoot.

Jim could probably tell Leonard was nervous, but was also probably misinterpreting it as him sensing something about this place. Especially when they had heard suspicious rustling and a sound that may have been growling come from the thick of the corn. It made the hair on Leonard’s arms stand up, and when Jim suggested maybe they should get out of there, he didn’t put up a fight about it. Hence the running like hell.

Whatever was in this corn was chasing them, and Leonard knew it was gaining on them if the rustling in the corn was anything to go off of. 

“We’re getting too old for this!” Leonard shouted to Jim, who was running just in front of him.

“Speak for yourself, Bones!” Jim called back, laughter in his voice. 

The way Leonard saw it, if everyone kept their current pace they may just make it out of the field and into the clearing before the creature caught up to them. Or they may not. He just hoped whatever was chasing them was constrained to the field.

It turns out it was not that easy, because it never fucking was. Just as Leonard was entering whoever the hell’s yard this was he was hit by something hard in the back and before he even knew what was happening he was falling face first to the ground. He heard Jim exclaim “Bones!” and he wondered for a moment if this was really it for him, if he had survived all that bullshit Starfleet had thrown at him just to die from some mysterious creature in a field in bumfuck, Iowa. And, God, Jim was going to blame himself for this for the rest of his life.

But it was odd, he realized, because he didn’t feel any pain and suddenly Jim was  _ laughing _ and it felt like something was licking him, so before he killed his boyfriend for laughing at his moment of crisis he lifted his head from the ground only to find himself face to face with the dopey grin of a very large, very excited golden retriever. 

“Jesus Christ,” he grumbled, or at least he tried to because dammit he was laughing too. He buried his face back into the ground, his body shaking with laughter as the stupid dog licked every exposed inch of his skin as though he had rolled around in raw meat that morning. Finally, he pushed the dog off him and started to get up. Jim offered him a hand, and the dog was darting in circles around them, barking excitedly.

“I almost got killed by a damn golden retriever,” Leonard laughed. He wasn’t going to try to act put out over the whole situation. Not with Jim, not ever with Jim.

“And just a puppy by the looks of him,” Jim leaned down a bit to scratch the dog behind his ears, “This little guy can’t be any more than a year old.”

“There ain’t anything ‘little’ about him. Swear to God that thing is 40 kilograms, at least,” Leonard argued, but he pet the dog as well. It was cute, nearly giving him a damn heart attack notwithstanding. In response, the dog put Leonard’s hand in his mouth. Not biting or anything just...holding it there and wagging his tail furiously.

“Aww, Bones, he likes you,” Jim grinned, equal parts smirk and soft smile. Bones took his hand out of the dog’s mouth. 

“What can I say? Overly excitable blonds love me.”

“Damn straight. And, ya know, maybe he won’t be the only overly excited blond to get on top of you tonight,” Jim wiggled his eyebrows, obviously proud of his stupid line.

“If anything, that situation is now  _ less _ likely to happen,” Leonard drawled. Jim, still oddly self satisfied, leaned in to press a kiss to his mouth.

“I love you, Bones,” Jim mumbled into his lips and he rolled his eyes,

“Quit tryin’ to court my favor just ‘cause your terrible line backfired.”   
“You love me,” Jim stated, and Leonard had learned by now that statements like that were Jim’s way of asking for reassurance so Leonard kissed him, just a quick peck, and nodded,

“I do love you, Jim.”   
The younger man beamed, pulled away, and crouched down to get to eye level with the dog, which was now seemingly content to sit quietly. Go figure.

“Where’d you come from? A corn field seems like an odd place for such a pretty boy like you,” Jim said to the dog, examining the tag on its collar. Leonard put his hands on Jim’s shoulders and laughed,

“Should I be worried you’re gonna leave me for a puppy?”

The dog licked Jim on the face and nearly pushed him back on the ground, and he had to catch himself on his hands. When he finally stood up again, Jim had something in his hand.   
“I think you dropped your ring, Bones,” Jim said, opening his hand to reveal a gold ring...a familiar gold ring. But it obviously wasn’t his dad’s ring that he always wore on his pinky, as that one was still firmly in place on his hand. This was the ring he had gotten for Jim, and now the man in question was looking back and forth between the ring in his hands and the one still on his boyfriend’s finger. Dammit, but Leonard supposed now was as good of a time as any. He had anticipated being a little less muddy when he did this, and he couldn’t have planned for the damn dog, but if being with Jim had taught him anything it was that sometimes you just had to roll with the punches. So he snatched the ring out of Jim’s hands and dropped one knee to the soft grass before realizing he hadn’t yet decided if he wanted to get  _ this  _ traditional. 

“Are you fucking with me right now?” Jim asked, the light of a full moon illuminating a strange look in his eyes. Leonard ignored him.

“Jim, everyday with you is a big damn adventure and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love you and I know you love me, so what do you say, kid? Wanna make this official?”

“Oh my God,” Jim laughed.  _ Laughed _ . He had just proposed and Jim was  _ laughing _ . His stomach twisted again, in anger this time, and he promptly got to his feet.

“Dammit, Jim, why couldn’t you just say no?” he asked, trying not to let any of the hurt come through in his tone. Some of it must have, though, because Jim stopped laughing as suddenly as he started.

“No...wait, shit, I mean yes...I mean no that’s not why I was laughing. Shit, I’m fucking this up, aren’t I?” 

Leonard said nothing, he just kept staring at the other man. Jim shrugged, then reached into his own pocket.

“I wasn’t laughing because you asked me to marry you, Bones, I was laughing because, well, I was actually going to ask you tonight too. I had a whole set up in the middle of that corn field, but then we got chased by the dog and, well...” Jim trailed off, then opened his fist to reveal a gold ring, very similar to the one Leonard had gotten for Jim. Figures. They had been on the same wavelength for basically everything that mattered pretty much since they met. Leonard couldn’t help but laugh a little as well, partially in joy and partially out of the serendipity of all of this. 

“See?” Jim countered, “You’re laughing too. It’s  _ funny _ . That being said, uh, sorry about that.”

“You never gave me an answer,” Leonard pointed out, even though the ring still sitting in Jim’s palm was actually all the answer he really needed. 

“Neither did you.”

Leonard took the ring from Jim’s hand and slipped it on his own finger,

“How’s that for your answer to the question you never actually asked?”

“It was implied,” Jim shrugged before softening his expression, gently opening Leonard’s now closed palm, taking the ring out, and putting it on his own finger. “That’s a yes,” Jim said quietly in a tone that Leonard thought he may have been the only one to really hear before. “In case you were still confused.”

There were a million things he wanted to say, but words seemed to be failing him at the moment so instead he pulled Jim close and kissed him. The kiss was soft, sweet, and full of all the promises they had already made to each other and all the ones they would soon be making. Jim seemed to be melting into his arms, and he bet he was doing the same. But life never seemed to care if it was interrupting Leonard’s moments because after not nearly enough time with Jim’s lips on his - to be fair to life, it was never enough time - the dog started barking again.

“Damn, I forgot about that thing,” Leonard mumbled against Jim’s lips.

“It lives a few houses down from here. Which is a couple kilometers, actually. We should probably return it,” Jim said, pulling away from Leonard’s arms but not before he pressed one last quick kiss to his lips.

“I think if it was stupid enough to get out, it’s not our responsibility to get it back in again,” Leonard stated, but he was never actually going to just leave the thing here. He knew that and Jim knew that too, if the roll of his boyfriend’s - no,  _ fiance’s _ \- eyes was anything to go off of.

Jim took Leonard’s hand, Jim’s left in Leonard’s right, and Leonard grinned like an idiot at the feeling of the cool metal now on Jim’s finger. With his other hand, Jim snapped then gave a sharp, Pike-esque whistle,

“Come on, boy, we’re going to take you home. And then I’ve got a fiance who needs his damn mind blown.”   
“Absurd,” Leonard rolled his eyes, ignoring the spark in his veins that was looking forward to getting Jim back to the hotel room. As they began walking down the little Iowa street, the dog followed, trotting along at Leonard’s side.

“Oh yeah, Jim, there is one condition to that proposal,” he said, and Jim knit his brows together in a way that was deliberately trying not to look concerned even though he obviously was. “I am absolutely not getting married in my damn dress uniform.”

Jim barked out a laugh then kissed Leonard on the cheek quickly as they walked,

“Okay, I think we can manage that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Really stretching the definition of "monster hunting" on this one, folks. I'm counting it, though, since that's what they originally set out to do.
> 
> Side note: Jim didn't actually plan on proposing to Bones in a haunted corn field. The haunting was just a ruse to get them to go ghost hunting like old times and lead into the proposal. The fact that the field ended up being "haunted" (by dog) was a surprise to him.


End file.
